Ludic Ideology at Odds: Game and Play in French New Wave Cinema

Abstract

The French New Wave filmmakers, in general, exhibit playful tendencies in their approach to film grammar, from editing techniques to dialogue. Ludic Ideology at Odds: Game and Play in French New Wave Cinema goes beyond this understanding, examining a specific ludic tension evident in select films of Louis Malle, Jacques Rivette, and Agnès Varda through images of pinball, chess, and playing cards. These aforementioned games exhibit a disciplinary split in play studies, one that positions traditional humanistic understandings of play against developing scientific models of play. Considering that the French New Wave movement was first understood as a sociological phenomenon, rooted in the surveys of popular culture magazines, this dissertation employs Roger Caillois’ sociological treatise on game and play Man, Play, and Games as a theoretical frame. Through Caillois, one discerns a rupture within ludic ideology, one that shows the seriousness of play, which may have social, political, and economic implications beyond the cinema. This rupture takes shape through the films of Malle, Rivette, and Varda, redefining the French New Wave and, at the same time, what it means to play.